origins of Traveller (was Re: [TML]Question)
shadow@xxxxxx 24 Jun 2015 01:19 UTC
On 23 Jun 2015 at 9:05, Greg Nokes wrote:
> To the point - the Aslan tactics that the other Greg mentioned are
> straight out of H. Beam Piper's Space Viking
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Viking) - Only they used
> starships and just landed them on the seat of government, disgorging
> troops and using nukes to swat pesky defenders. Nothing new or
> surprising there, and easily defended against if you have a proper
> planetary defense network.
>
> Space Viking actually is the basis for a lot of Traveller - if you've
> not read any of Piper's work, it's worth it to see the fount that
> traveller sprung from - sort of like Jack Vance's Dying Earth and
> Tolken had such an impact on D&D. I'm sure everyone here knows that,
> just pointing it out for the Other Greg. ;-)
Biggest influences are likely Andre Norton (First-In scouts, Free
Traders, other bits), Poul Anderson's Polesotechnic League stories
(both the stuff involving Nick van Rijn, David Falkyn, etc and the
later stuff involving Dominic Flandry).
Then there's E. C. Tubb's Dumarest stories (where we got low berths,
middle passage, fast drug & slow drug).
--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com